We who with songs beguile your pilgrimage / And swear that Beauty lives though lilies die, / We Poets of the proud old lineage / Who sing to find your hearts, we know not why ... (James Elroy Flecker)

27.2.18

To the Repairer


For the (fictional) series, "Edges"
Her Voice 


To the Repairer

You don't even like me! 
I am all mechanical parts,
my soon-to-be-obsolete machinery
winding down, starting to clank.
The sky is wide, and under it
you may find many smoother, 
more highly satisfying games
than taking apart this old brain-box.
Yet, if you’d done it right,
there might have been discoveries.

You think, if you slime some grease
over the creaky bits and slow connections,
I should tune up in a while
and rev my motor. Well, careful –
you might start a firestorm 
from one single spark.
However, I don’t say these things. I’m silent
against your onslaught – catatonic even –
but inwardly scrying for the exit route
from these depradations.


(Not autobiography!)


Sharing – some time later – with Poets United's Poetry Pantry #401

33 comments:

  1. hmmm i resonate with this right now. thank you.

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    1. Glad to be of service - and sorry you have cause to resonate with this!

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  2. The sky is wide. I like that and the observation, had the repairer been more skilled, the results might have been better.

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  3. The regret that had it been done right, it would have been so much better, so different... I think that resonates with everyone at some level... but hopefully without bitterness.

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  4. How many of accept the seven ages of man (woman)? Few of us I expect as we seem to have left the best age behind repaired bits or not!

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  5. I can certainly relate to this as days go by. I did enjoy your poem especially as I can interpret it with two different meanings.

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    1. Thanks, Julian. I deliberately made it ambiguous.

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  6. I'm resonating too, with 'soon-to-be-obsolete machinery
    winding down, starting to clank'. Never mind the firestorm - I'd be grateful for a spark!

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  7. Oh! I can relate..💜 sometimes its necessary to add some spice to the relationship lest we end up abhoring one another.

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  8. Any relationship where someone has the hubris to feel they must "repair" another, especially when there was no request for repair given by the other person, is pretty much doomed.

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  9. Hmmmmm -- could be a relationship. Love the metaphor and the different ways it can be interpreted!

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    1. Yes, it could be a personal relationship. I'm glad some of my readers realise there are other possibilities too. (But perhaps not many have needed "repairing" lol.)

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  10. Witty poem, and thanks for the comment on my piece. Solid authentic laugh!

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  11. "The sky is wide, and under it..."
    remarkable statement in the face of the action of the poem

    much love...

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  12. I think there is some grease that fits every machinery... but maybe some of it is hard to get by. The metaphor meaning is the one I felt at once.

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  13. What havoc we can wreak when we fail to take care or do things right the first time....whether in life of with things. Love that ending...feels like how the world is right now.

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  14. intriguing and left for interpretation. Lovely.

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  15. hope i am reading this right. i am set for some repairs too at the local hospital in a couple of weeks on some "old machinery." :)

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    1. You're not reading it wrong. There's more than one interpretation.

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  16. I'm clanging right along with you!

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  17. oh yes I can relate to this...

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  18. Some things one can't try to fix. The only way to get them to work, as they feel is proper, is to follow their lead. Some people never slowdown long enough to notice this. And it's a shame.

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  19. Very interesting reading, Rosemary. It moved me right along in thought and in my imagination.
    ZQ

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  20. The close on both stanzas is impactful and gives pause. A thoughtful and thought provoking nuanced piece ... the metaphor perhaps, resonating particularly strongly, with those of us 'of a certain age'.

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  21. Somehow, that line about the sky just gets me--the offer of escape for both the technician and the speaker. *shiver*

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  22. I don’t say these things.
    I’m silent against your onslaught

    That seems the contention every time the car is brought to the repairman's garage. He would take his time and pile on the charges. Love the lighter mood in presentation Rosemary!

    Hank

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  23. Very imaginative. I think the repairer has to tread carefully. A good write!

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  24. I've been thinking about the Japanese art of fixing cracked and shattered bowls--making them more precious by repairing with gold (Kintsugi). This, of course, is the opposite--more of an imposition than an opportunity.

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    1. Yes, I think the Japanese art honours the breaks, showing how they too are part of the beauty of the whole..

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  25. Today, while I was at work, my cousin stole
    my iPad and tested to see if it can survive a 30 foot drop,
    just so she can be a youtube sensation. My apple ipad is now
    destroyed and she has 83 views. I know this is completely off
    topic but I had to share it with someone!

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    1. Well it's not COMPLETELY off topic, considering the nature of this poem. Furthermore, if it's spam I don't see what you would have to gain by it, and if it's real I perfectly understand the need to vent! Your cousin should buy you a new one! (But perhaps that is unlikely from a person who would do that in the first place.)

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